Baby Quilt for my Nephew's Baby

 This is a baby quilt for my Nephew's baby girl on the way!

 I backed it with yellow flannel so it will be nice and soft!

Currently on my design wall

Here is a quick shot of what's on my design wall. Seems like I can never just work on one thing at a time because I have too many ideas!

Small Wall Quilt

This is a small wall quilt that is 25" x 20". I had a 5" charm pack of a Tula Pink fabric collection and wanted to just play with putting them together for a nice pop of summer colors on the wall.

I put 2 of the squares right sides together and sewed 1/4" around all 4 corners. Then cut diagonally in both directions to get 4 squares.

                                                 I hand quilted around the blocks.

 

                                                                        Voila! 

Slash and Sew Quilt Variation

This Slash and Sew (or Slice and Sew) quilt is a great summer time quilt. Yeah even though there have been really hot days, the evenings can get cooler and its nice to have a light weight lap quilt while reading, watching TV and hand stitching.

 

To get the floating shapes use a solid or near solid background fabric and contrasting colors for the inserted strips. I started with roughly 10" x 12" background blocks and 2 1/2" strips in variety of oranges to maroons. Then I cut the background block in half at an angle through the shorter portion and inserted a strip of fabric. So it will be roughly 12" x 12" once the insert is sewn in. The blocks will all be trimmed later.

Then I cut random sized strips through the block. I cut between 2" - 2 3/4". Layout an arrangement that you like. Then you will sew this strips together based on the layout.

 

Wait to trim the edges to square up the block until you have all of the blocks completed to determine your smallest block and then trim up based on that block. 

 Layout in rows that looks pleasing. Sew the rows together.

I layered the quilt with cotton batting and quilted the top in a chevron design. This was really fun to design on the fly and see how it turns out!

NOTES: There will be some small pieces cut off from the edges but save these for little projects. Also each row doesn't need to be the same size in width.

Simple Stars and Stripes

This turned out to be one of my favorite quilts!

It was inspired by this patriotic stash of fabrics I pulled together from my stash and lived with it for awhile in a vintage tool box. I had never made a red, white and blue quilt before so wanted to try it. I used creams instead of whites which gives it a vintage look.

I knew I wanted to make some kind of stars with stripes. Since I love an informal quilting process I started with a square and then I cut random sized triangles for the stars. After sewing, I trimmed to 1/4 inch.And squared up the block after both point were added.

For the stripes, I started sewing strips of reds and creams in random widths. Then trimmed to a width I liked. (Save the cut edges and piece together for small projects)

 

 I cut random sized triangles for the stars.After sewing on at an angle, I trimmed straight across the bottom. Notice the star points are larger so no matching was needed!

 On my design wall:

 

I quilted in 1/4 spaced rows for a modern look.

Cutting Instructions for each block:

Center star blocks: 
Cut 1 Blue fabric and 8 Cream fabrics 4 1/2" x 4 1/2" 
Star points cut 4 Blue fabrics 4 1/2" x 4 1/2" and cut in half (trimmed after sewing)

Boarder stars along red and cream strips: 
Cut 1 Blue fabric 4" x 4" 
Star points cut 4 Blue fabrics 4 1/2" x 4 1/2" and cut in half (trimmed after sewing)

Boarder Stripes: 
Cut Reds and Creams in random widths then cut to 4 1/2" long (will be trimmed to 4" later).

For sewing follow photo steps above.This quilt is 34" x 34" so has:

• 4 center star blocks 
• 9 boarder stars (note some of them are partial for the boarder)
• 2 red and cream strip sets

Hexies made with markers and rubbing alcohol

I took a class at my art guild on making cool shapes with rubbing alcohol and permanent markers. We made a bunch of these on muslin stretched over a cup. You just draw some lines with the markers and drop on the rubbing alcohol in the middle and the colors run into cool designs. Some times the colors change in surprising ways as they blend. They dry in no time. Hexies are a great way to use these circles in projects. These are sewn on a cotton dish towel.

 This is a hot pad made with the hexies also:

I ironed them with a hot iron and steam to make sure they wouldn't run when washed. This would be a great project or young kids to make!

A few of my early quilts

I was taking a look back on some of my earliest quilts when I was teaching myself to quilt. I still love this jewel quilt and it was easy learning to machine quilt this.

This snowball quilt was really fun to make with just two colors. This one was all hand cut pieces with templates way before rotatory cutters. Then was hand quilted.

This is a flannel baby quilt with half square triangles. I like the rows of colors.

This is also one of my earliest quilts that I made for my son when he was little. He got to pick out all of the fabrics and then I just started playing with putting it together. Now I want to make more with the random width strips.

The doggies get to use this now!

QA Quilting Day Camp Class - Fun Day!

I had so much fun teaching at the QA Day Camp. All the gals were so much fun too! Here are the results of everyone's  completed zipper bags. I love the creativity and differences in each one.

Thanks for a great day ladies!

That's How I Roll Art Quilt

This was for the Quilters Anonymous Quilt Guild Challenge Quilt. It had to be 75% black, white, grays, and 25% one fabric of any color. And had to have one or more words. This is mine:

I really like how this turned out. There were so many beautiful quilts in the show from very talented quilter guild members.

Teaching at QA Day Camp

I'm sure looking forward to Quilters Anonymous Day Camp Saturday May 30th. I will be showing how to make a Modern Scrap Buster Zipper Bag with lining. I'm excited to see what everyone makes! Here is an example:

See ya soon!